The Room Director Tommy Wiseau Reviews The Disaster Artist

The real Tommy Wiseau appears to approve of The Disaster Artist, the new film about the making of his infamous midnight movie, The Room. The Room has come a long way from its beginnings as one of the strangest, weirdest and worst movies ever made, upon its release in 2003. It started out as the mysteriously funded passion project of oddball European auteur Wiseau, and the ensuing years became first a curiosity, and then a cult midnight movie, and then a cottage industry, leading to various related books, documentaries and other projects.

The best known of those projects, actor Greg Sestero’s memoir The Disaster Artist, has been adapted into a film of the same name, starring James Franco as Wiseau and Dave Franco as Sestero, with James making his directorial debut. The movie is headed for release this December, following a buzzy debut at South by Southwest in the spring and a couple of well-received trailers so far. With The Disaster Artist film showing once again this week – at midnight, of course – at the Toronto International Film Festival, one particularly important critic has spoken: Wiseau himself.

The real Wiseau said in the interview that he “99.9 percent” approves of the film, with his only objection being the way James Franco throws the football, in the film’s re-enactment of The Room’s infamous football-tossing scene. He also praised the makeup in the film, while Franco thanked Wiseau and Sestero for their support with The Disaster Artist. At times during the interview, Franco seems lapse into a Wiseau-style European accent, as he reportedly did on the set of the film.

Wiseau’s very participation in the interview, and at the Toronto festival itself, is an indication that he approves of The Disaster Artist project and has no objection to its depiction of how his famous film came to be; he had used the “99.9 percent” line in previous interviews. And whatever you think of James Franco, it’s hard to imagine any other current actor as a better fit for the role.

True, as anyone who has seen The Room could tell you, Wiseau may not be the world’s greatest judge of film grammar or quality. But nevertheless, it’s good to know he’s on board with The Disaster Artist.